Harriet Olney - THIS IS DIFFERENT: The acrylic paintings of the Warburton Arts Project

Harriet Olney started working at the Warburton school in 2013.  When this concluded, she continued to contribute as an independent director on the board of the Ngaanyatjarra Council.  Since 2021, she has been a volunteer assisting the relocation and conservation of the Warburton Acrylic Collection.

 

Unique among remote Aboriginal communities, the Warburton Arts Project was designed to collect rather than sell work by local artists.  Collecting over a thirty-year period, Warburton Community lays claim to holding the largest collection of Aboriginal-owned art in Australia.  
The Warburton Arts Project began in 1989 with a focus on the generation who ‘walked the land.’  For the purpose of this presentation, they have been defined as artists who were born before 1950 who painted large acrylic on canvas dot paintings representing Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) knowledge required to survive in an extremely arid landscape.
In the decades that followed the focus shifted to include topics of broad interest in the community.  Principally, these topics were the history of engagement with the missionaries who had first settled in Warburton in 1934 and increasing intrusions by mining companies.
The Warburton Acrylic Collection has attracted international attention.  Referring to high attendance numbers at the Land and Body exhibition in Shanghai in 2011, Frances Adamson, Australian Ambassador to China, reported ‘the response was extraordinary.’  Most recently, Warburton’s art has been included in the Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters blockbuster exhibition traveling in Europe. 
The presentation will also cover art produced in Warburton prior to the arrival of the dot painting movement and the community’s long-term plans for economic development.
 

Members and guests are warmly invited to join us before the meeting for drinks and nibbles. 

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